By the numbers

The images accompanying these stories on the front and inside pages are mugshots of 725 jail inmates over a 25-hour period spanning Aug. 21-22.

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It took about a week for Springfield police to finish up an investigation of a man accused of child molestation.

At the end, the detective arrested 26-year-old Bobby Eujean Wheeler and submitted his case to Greene County prosecutors. The corporal from Springfield believed Wheeler could face more than 15 years in prison for the sexual abuse of an 11-year-old.

But after 24 hours, prosecutors hadn’t charged him. Wheeler had to be released. He stayed free, too, for more than a year — no warrant, no charges.

About three weeks ago — after a delay officials attribute to a complicated and dammed-up county justice system — Wheeler was charged with first-degree child molestation, a class B felony.

Prosecutors say reviewing the case and asking for more information accounted for some of the delay. But they also acknowledge Wheeler’s was one of more than 1,500 felony cases that had been piling up in Greene County for months.

The good news, prosecutors say, is that justice is finally catching up.

Thanks to a voter-approved law enforcement sales tax passed in 2012, prosecutors have been able to cut the backlog nearly in half. Prosecutor Dan Patterson believes that by the beginning of 2014, all crimes will be charged soon after they happen.

But in the meantime, the push through the backlog is having a ripple effect.

The Greene County Jail is more crowded than ever. To try to ease that pressure, Greene County judges are declining to issue warrants for many of the backlogged cases. Defendants are missing court dates and public defenders are getting hit with a flood of new clients.

And many in the system say they saw it coming.

Caseloads on the rise

The phones in the Public Defender’s Office in Springfield have gone unanswered lately as the office struggles to keep up with the onslaught of new cases filed by the prosecutor’s office.

Rod Hackathorn heads the office charged with providing a constitutionally required defense for indigent citizens. For the time being, he said his attorneys are able to handle the load.

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“Their caseloads are creeping up — nothing completely off the charts but it’s still early,” he said, adding, “How it’s going to affect our attorneys in the following weeks is yet to be determined.”

Hackathorn reiterated his prediction of a “bottleneck” in the court system as more prosecutors were hired, thanks to the new tax revenue. The impact of those hires is even more visible in the county’s bloated jail.

Although officials say several factors have contributed to the record jail population, the prosecutors acknowledge their push is adding to the overcrowding.

In an effort to curb the problem, Greene County judges decided to look to the way the warrants are used.

Instead of issuing them for some offenders, judges will issue a summons — essentially an official order, sent through the mail, requiring an appearance in court.

With jail overcrowding in mind, Presiding Judge Tom Mountjoy said judges will go the summons route on class C- and D-felony charges that are at least eight months old.

Those felony crimes usually involve drugs or property — not violence — and the offenders face seven years in prison or less. Most more serious crimes are charged without delay.

Wheeler, whose molestation charge carries a 15-year maximum sentence, is an uncommon, though not unprecedented, backlogged case. Following the delay, a judge issued a warrant for him and he is currently being held on a $25,000 bond.

Mountjoy described the new warrant practice as a “careful process not a blanket rule.”

Still, Greene County Prosecutor Dan Patterson, whose staff is requesting the warrants, says the judges’ new strategy is just delaying the inevitable.

“Essentially, the court is sending mail to criminals.”

And that mail, Patterson said, might not be getting to the alleged felony offender because addresses often become outdated between the time a crime occurs and when a backlogged case is filed.

“That or they will ignore it.”

Either way, Patterson said, the court will eventually have to issue a warrant and the impact to the jail is only delayed.

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But judges felt compelled to do more as prosecutors began requesting warrants at significantly higher rates.

“We were getting so many,” said Associate Court Judge Mark Powell.

Although he didn’t have the stats, Powell estimated prosecutors have recently been asking him to issue as many as 20 warrants per week. Normally, Powell issues about five.

“We thought we ought to at least give these people a chance to come to court,” Powell said.

On the day Powell was interviewed by the News-Leader, he said a woman charged with a drug felony was issued a summons instead of a warrant and she showed up for court.

“That’s one more person we don’t need to go through the jail,” he said.

'I did see it coming'

Powell said judges have been considering how to ease the jail population since voters recently approved the law enforcement sales tax.

“I knew it was going to happen,” Powell said.

More deputies and more prosecutors will result in more people in jail, he said.

“I did see it coming.”

More generally, Mountjoy said judges are continuing what they’ve always done to reduce the jail population. They try to get serious offenders a pre-trial assessment as early as possible while cutting loose those accused of minor offenses.

“But we can only do so much that way,” Mountjoy said.

Mountjoy hopes things might soon return to normal and judges can make decisions based on justice, not the jail.

But, “I’m not sure how,” he said.

A case isn’t over when it ts filed, Mountjoy noted. It can take months, even years for a felony case to move through the system.

Painful process

For his part, Patterson acknowledged his eagerness to push through the backlog has proven “painful, a little bit” and will continue to be until all 1,500 cases have been disposed of.

“But, in the long run, the entire system benefits,” he said. “It’s an important thing to do.”

Patterson explained that once the backlog is cleared, all cases filed will be current — filed no more than 30 days after investigators hand over their cases to prosecutors.

It’s important, Patterson said, because witnesses are more likely to remember accurately; victims of theft can recover their belongings more quickly; and offenders are more likely to be rehabilitated.

“The basic concept of punishment is that it needs to be close in time to have any effect,” Patterson said.

“If you don’t have any consequences for your conduct, what does that say about your conduct?”

The filing frenzy peaked this summer when Patterson dedicated a part-time employee to help shrink the backlog. Filings this July were 75 percent higher than during the same month in 2012.

Although felony filings are beginning to slow after the summer help, Patterson said he will continue to pick away at the backlog with a goal to finish up by the end of the year.